Monkeys on the Bus

This morning started off as a fairly unremarkable and typical journey on the 19 bus. I was sitting on the bus on my way to work reading a section on evolution in a biology book. Having suffered from motion sickness when I was younger (and by younger I mean until about three weeks ago), I have been relishing the opportunity to read on the bus lately, and I feel as if I am making up for years of lost time.

I noticed that my favorite rider was on the bus today, a middle-aged woman with a raspy smoker’s voice who exclaims “Omigod! Omigod!” every time the bus approaches a stop with many people waiting (which is every stop at 8:15am), and then takes it upon herself to be the human traffic manager, shouting, “Yalla! Let’s go! Yalla! Let’s go!” as passengers board the bus.

Entertained by my favorite rider while reading my biology book, it was hard to pay attention to much else, but I did catch that the woman sitting diagonally across from me had stopped davening and was now scribbling furiously on notebook paper. I didn’t think much of it, and looked back down at my book. A couple minutes later, she tapped me on the shoulder and presented me with the following note:

The idea that man came from monkeys was after the horrors of the 1st World War when the Europeans wanted an excuse for sexual freedom.

Look on internet. Tel Aviv University Prof. Raz made a theory that there are apes and there are men. Men didn’t come from monkeys.

ShXXXXXX, 054-XXXXXXX

(Below this was a convoluted postscript about a religious text that, according to her, implicates one who believes in evolution will become a monkey.)

I thanked her for her reading suggestions and she asked me to call her so that she could present me with more material on the topic (and to introduce me to her very wonderful, very eligible son according to the careful analysis of the situation by a certain chemistry professor’s husband).

I was neither angered nor threatened by our interaction, only a little stunned. I could have been offended that she was suggesting I was ignorant about the subject and that she was there to enlighten me and inform me of the truth, but I knew that she meant no malice.

I suspect that Professor Raz is probably a credible scientist and also that his work does not attempt to disprove evolution, but rather that she took his work regarding evolutionary relationships between man and primate out of context and misinterpreted it. I am interested to find his work but a few cursory Google searches turned up nothing promising – perhaps she got the name slightly wrong?

I think that some of the onlookers on the bus probably thought I was an impressionable young girl being indoctrinated by this woman’s ideas because I was so receptive to what she had to say. But it was clear to me that refuting what this woman believes or arguing with her served no purpose; unlike her perception of me I did not believe for a moment I had any chance of changing her mind, especially if she is convinced that she has credible scientific “proof.”

Another added irony and level of complexity to the interaction is that while I am actually religious, she would have no way of knowing of this. The whole interaction made me reflect on what it means to be a religious Jew in science (certainly not an inherent contradiction in my opinion), but I am going to chicken out on expounding upon this one for now!

Once I shared my note in lab we got to wondering – what is this sexual freedom that the monkeys supposedly have that the Europeans wanted so badly? We secretly wish we didn’t have to wear underwear? I will leave you this question to ponder, but in the meantime, it’s really not half bad to be a monkey on the bus.